pictures!

ribe from the top of the church tower. . . denmark is always kind of foggy

jesus

bar in ribe

medieval church in germany

woman on the ferry to flensburg

vega

drinking carlsberg

the danish military lives in really tiny medieval houses

the little mermaid

little chairs

we went on a trip to flensburg (in northern germany) and ribe (the oldest town in denmark). it was europe as i'd imagined it being and was starting to worry it didn't exist--thatched roofs and sheep and medieval churches with big intimidating jesuses (jesui?) hanging from the ceilings. in copenhagen i can sometimes forget how far i am from home, because half the signs are in english and streets are streets and fancy clothing stores are fancy clothing stores. but out in the country it's so foreign and amazing. danish people frequently ask me why i came here, but in copenhagen they're usually just surprised that any americans can locate denmark on a map. in ribe they were genuinely shocked--a small town in denmark is very small (about 9,000 people). the locals thought longingly about nearby ejsberg, the fifth largest city in denmark (about 90,000 people). i took a lot of pictures of stained glass and old stone things that i'll put on here soon. also, in germany the beer is much cheaper and much better. i need to go back to germany. i feel a little guilty about liking it so much--my grandparents still won't go there--but at least in the north, it's a lot like denmark but a little more familiar.

funny thing a man told me in a bar in ribe (one of two or three) --in denmark you can get a stipend for going to prison. some people can also go to work or school during the day and then come back to prison at night. this is a ridiculous country. my roommate's mother was saying that she won't leave her shopping bags in her bicycle basket when she goes into a store anymore, not because someone might steal them, but because (in light of recent events) someone might think it was a bomb. she would, however, leave her baby outside. she told me about a danish woman was visiting new york and left her baby outside a restaurant and was arrested for child endangerment. "why would someone steal a baby?" she asked me. i tried to explain that someone would take it just because it was there, and not consider about the potential benefits of a free child. i think even criminals in denmark are more practical than we are.

"clearance sale" in danish is "slutspurt."

april 3 to 6 or so i'm thinking of going to latvia. i know you've all been dying to go to the ever-popular baltic coast, so if you want to come let me know. i'm also probably going to barcelona for a day or two, to appease my parents, who seem concerned that my desire to visit cold eastern and northern european countries over warm, happy southwestern european countries is some kind of masochistic disorder. it's true that if my plans work out, by the time i leave i'll have gone to germany (three times), latvia, britain, the czech republic, iceland, norway and of course, denmark, but not italy, france, or greece. i don't know. there's a straightforwardness, a kind of lack of pretense, in northern europe that i really like. people are shy and a little rude and then they drink a lot and sing in inappropriate places, which i think fits my personality.

thank you mr. bee

i got a bicycle. after a week of ownership, i can bike in snow, in the dark, kind of drunk, wearing heels. i cannot yet simultaneously smoke a cigarette, talk on my cellphone, and carry small children on my bike, but i expect to get there in a couple of months. i got it at police auction where, if i'd understood the description, i probably would have learned that it was the shittiest bike ever made. but it rolls and everything. just not very fast, which is a problem in a country where bike traffic is faster and scarier than car traffic. at about 4:30 in the morning this saturday, in a pitchdark tunnel about a foot wide and covered in ice, a guy tried to pass me.

anyway. friday night my european politics professor, rasmus, took us to a nightclub that he partially owns. it used to be the labor party headquarters, and they still meet there sometimes. prince has played there twice. copenhagen continues to be the coolest place on earth in almost every possible way. rasmus also bought all of us a drink. so did my russian lit professor when he took us to a student bar thursday night. why don't u.s. professors do this? on the other hand, danish music seems pretty awful. friday night was danish hiphop; saturday night was danish "alternative heavy metal," which i think is emo music you can headbang to. and people did. even in copenhagen, some people are stuck in the eighties. "i realized they were people too about a week and a half ago," my friend willy said, and i laughed but i don't think i've totally reached that point yet. everyone in denmark is so stylish and coordinated and perfect that it's like looking at pictures in a magazine. it doesn't help that i never understand what they're saying.

my roommate's family came home from cuba. i miss having time alone in the house, but they're great. they have about ten children that live there once in a while; i think it's sort of like step by step, with multiple divorces. last week we all watched america's next top model, and felix said, "her lips are so big, it's so ugly" and sophie said "maybe she got plastic surgery" and i thought, i want these people to adopt me. and they do keep giving me food, which is nice, because grocery shopping in denmark is incredibly depressing--everything is gross, expensive, or both. last night they had a "cuba night," where we drank mojitos, listened to salsa music and looked at the pictures from their trip. did i mention that i love them?

the only thing not great about denmark is the mohammed cartoon scandal . . . one of my professors said that this is the scariest time for denmark since world war II, which is insane. danish foreign policy is generally to not offend anyone ever and go unnoticed, so they're really surprised to be making international news. but there's a huge snowstorm right now, so it would be hard to set anything on fire here. i hope.